Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella confirmed the company's plans to reduce its workforce during the global economic slowdown, following similar action taken by Meta and Amazon.
Microsoft, which employs more than 220,000 people worldwide, including 6,000 in the UK, will lay off 10,000 employees by the end of September 2023.
The company will also spend $1.2bn (£972m) in severance and reorganisation costs.
In the announcement, Nadella blamed changing customer behaviours following the Covid-19 pandemic. He stressed that while customer spending had grown during Covid, more people and companies were now choosing to "exercise caution" when faced with a looming recession.
“We’re now seeing them optimise their digital spend to do more with less,” he said. “We will align our cost structure with our revenue and where we see customer demand."
Microsoft's business boomed during the pandemic, fuelled by the increase in remote work and other...